Connected by a short bridge and located right at the southwest tip of Bohol is where you will find the small island of Panglao.

A very short distance from the port of Tagbilaran it is home to some lovely white sand beaches but Panglao is mostly renowned internationally for being a tropical paradise for divers.

This is the pleasant view I had eating a late breakfast at my resort and trying to figure out how I should spend what was left of my last day in Panglao

I then decided to have a stroll down the Alona beach to look for an idea

A small banca on the way

Here some more, they actually are everywhere along the beach

I eventually saw a few motorbikes for hire and a guide offered me to take a tour around the island so off I went on a scooter. Every possible form of transportation is for hire in the Philippines and you will find no shortage of offers to do pretty much anything you want.

My first stop was at a roman catholic church that we crossed on the way

No idea what this was but I took a picture as I was intrigued

Back on the road crossing one of those Filipino tricycle

The beaches of the northern part of Panglao island

Low tide at this time of day

Native kids playing along the beach

Back on the road again

The Hinagdanan underground Cave is a cool little spot if you want to take a break from the heat and take a dip in the lagoon filled with freshwater

local kids seem to love diving into the 9 foot deep waters

Very hard to take proper pictures with my little Canon Ixus camera but the Panglao cave is filled with stalactites and stalagmites

More tricycles for hire on the way

Next stop the Panglao mini-zoo

some of the varieties of birds it holds

But it’s not limited to birds there are of course other animals though the highlight if you happen to be lucky enough to arrive just at the right time is the boa that’s fed once a week a live piglet

Longer & wider than the Alona with less development is one of the reasons

Also you’ll see friendly local faces there. The Dumaluan beach resort rents huts there for 150 pesos per day and tents for 350 if you want to stay overnight so you’ll feel like you actually are in the Philippines and not on some beach in Spain surrounded by Caucasians. That was the main downside I found of staying at Alona Beach.

This is where I was suggested to go but I strongly recommend to book in advance since it was full when I wanted to do reservations there

The vast majority of resorts are located on the southwest coat along the 1 km long Alona beach. This portion of the island is more geared towards divers though and if you rather have a larger & longer beach in a more quiet area I would recommend the northern resorts on Dumaluan Beach, Bolod beach, Momo beach or Duljo beach. A few others on the Eastern portion are available where you can find the San Isodro beach, Bikini beach, and Libaong beach. Nowhere near as busy it’s a great spot to relax and get away from it all.

Back on Alona beach a few hours later trying to pick what I want to eat from the seafood displayed. Certainly fresh as some of it was still moving

Living seashell

Again the evening finishing late at around 5AM with the company of some tourists and expats